1. I am unsure of how many ports are on a system (Although this has changed; you have now informed me!)2. Did the developers of whatever system you're using use an int or an unsigned int or a different datatype.

I never claimed there's only 32676 ports I expressed my lack of knowledge concerning the total number of ports on a system and provided a possible number that might be there, lol.

As to whether something is signed or unsigned has to do a lot with the maximum value that can be assigned to that variable.

The first bit of a signed int is a 1 or a 0 (duh, bit!) that determines what the sign of the value is. This takes 1 bit away from the overall size of the int - hence, if we count up our powers of two, then we'll realize that for every bit that is lost, the total value a int can hold is decreased by a power of 2.

I totally understand your 16-bit and 32-bit explanations (NEWS FLASH: contrary to public belief, no, i am not a total idiot! lol) and I'll even bet I could find out what it would be for a 64-bit system too!

And...um, I know C too, I can write a quick program. Thanks. Yep. C++ too, i'm leet out the wazoo. NONO, i'm not "elite", only lamers can be "elite".

heh, nah, I'm not freakin out. When my point isn't coming across properly, I get very verbose. I was just trying to tell you about var sizes, and you think I'm talking about max values. Two subtly different things. The conflict probably arose cause you look at var types in terms of value, and I look at them in terms of size. When considering a var's size, sign is irrelevent - that's my point.

I just felt compelled to tell ya that int is actually 32-bit and why cause you said it was 16-bit so-to-speak.

(you don't have to prove that you're not an idiot by proving you know how negative numbers is translated from binary. )